The Dos and Don’t of SEO Writing

Article writing accounts for about 70% of B2B websites, most of these are outsourced to freelance writers. If you are looking to write content for SEO, there are a few things which should be considered before plunging into the deep end. First, SEO article writing is just like any job, you should be professional and you have to treat your clients as your boss. Yes, you can be your “own boss”, but there are deadlines, templates, and outlines which will need to be followed if you wish to successfully write articles for SEO. Apart from that, here are a few dos and don’ts of SEO article writing.

Be a native of the language you are writing

When writing articles for SEO or having someone write the articles for you, it is not at all unethical to require content only from native speaking and writing professionals. Think about it. If you are writing an article and you only have a basic understanding of the language, you will not be able to convey the thoughts to educated minds. The content will come across as being written by a tourist or an elementary student, both of which are poor for SEO writing. However, if you are a native of the language in which you are writing the article for, you will understand the grammar, spelling, and wordage to make the content flow naturally and engage the reader.

Avoid using too many keywords

One of the biggest indicators of a novice writer is their dependence upon the keywords for the client they are writing for. Ideally, your content should only have 3% of keyword usage for the article to sound natural. What you do not want is to have sentences which make absolutely no sense. For example, if the keyword is milkman, a novice would state: Jack is a milkman. He delivers milk. Sometimes the milkman gets bit by a dog. This makes the milkman unhappy. As you can see, this is a gross abuse of the wordage. Use some pronouns, complex sentences, and such to get the point across.

When possible use long searchable strands over singular words

Single words are extremely difficult to monopolize in the SERP world. Think about all the sites which cater to dogs, IT services, writing, and clothing. Using just those words would be pointless in an article. For you to use the keywords as well as make them appear in the SERPs use long searchable sentence strands such as dog parks in Los Angeles, IT services for upper New York, writing your first SEO blog, or how to customize your college clothing for Bulldog Season. These strands are more unique and therefore will (a) target a more distinctive crowd (b) increase your local SERPs by allowing people to search for the keyword within their local area (c) reduce the risk of oversaturation of the term.

Never use a content generator

Content generation is a very poor way to build SEO articles. First, it is a not ethical. You are taking someone else’s work and just changing the wordage and calling it your own. Secondly, if you are using a keyword writing generator, it is taking snippets from other sites and compiling the article. You may get some very weird results depending on the sophistication of the software. Finally, when you use a generator for your SEO article writing, there is no guarantee that you are getting 100% original content which could pass copyscape or other such sites. This could result in you not getting paid for the work, getting you banned from a site (if you are a freelancer and use such tools), ruining your SERPs are the SEO will appear in Google analytics as duplicate content, and cost you more money to fix the problem. Avoid this headache and do it right the first time. Write it yourself, or have a professional SEO article writer do it for you.

Give Credit where it is due

When writing your articles, do not forget to add footnotes and hyperlink to sources. This helps to build your reputation as an honest writer. If using copyrighted material, ensure that you have permission to use it before you post.

Read over and modify

Writing articles for SEO requires the person to be able to adapt to changes in the content of the article. While you may think that the content is exceptional for a website, it does not necessarily mean that the content is appropriate for an audience. Doctors will have a more educational and formal tone, social media will be more laid back, and men/women will have different terminology. Do not be aggravated if your article submission needs revision or re-writing when submitting it to external sites. It is just part of the job.

We live in great times where people are living longer than ever before. Although America is not the highest in the world for life expectancy, we are quite high with women living on average of 81 years and men getting to the age of 76. With so many people living longer lives and the advancements in medicine making much of this possible, there is a large focus on social care for the elderly in the USA. People are right to be concerned because once you reach a certain age, it can be difficult and even impossible to find and maintain adequate employment. Add that with the fact that elderly individuals require much more medical services than young people and you can see that we need to have a way to take care of the elderly.

Social Security

Social Security has proven to be an efficient way for the government to provide social care for the elderly. Once an individual reaches the age of 62 they are able to draw social security benefits, but full benefits are given to those that wait until 65 to take advantage of the program. The amount a person is given is derived from the where the person lives and their requirements to maintain their current lifestyle. The person is given a check each month to cover the expenses. It is a good system that has worked for many years, but many worry that the increased life expectancy along with the government strains on budgets will deplete the resources we currently have for social security. Where this is of some concern, the social care of the elderly in the USA is now getting a little help from unexpected sources.

Retirement Planning

There was a time where people could rely on simply getting old and drawing their social security benefits, but controversy has forced some people to look to alternative options instead of a reliance on the system. Younger people are realizing that they have to plan for retirement in the case that social security funds are unavailable when they reach the correct age. They are taking matters into their own hands and budgeting for a retirement plan while they are still young. This may seem like paranoia, but it is in fact helping the social security administration out considerably without so many people turning strictly to the social security administration for support.

Part of the social security benefits gives individuals access to medical care, but with guidelines to follow. There may be stipulations on hospitals as well as which doctor can be used. Many people do not like stipulations when it comes to their ability to get medical care and therefore they will maintain their own medical insurance to ensure that they are taken care of how they want to be. This further enhances the ability of the government to get funds to the people that are unable to procure their own medical insurance.

Nursing Homes

Many social security recipients find themselves unable to take care of their everyday needs. This forces them to make the decision to move into an assisted living home or nursing home. In recent years, many of the government funded nursing homes have gained a negative reputation for patient care. This is not to say that all nursing homes are bad, as many are excellent facilities for those that need it, but rather brings to light the fact that a few bad eggs can ruin the whole bunch.

State funded nursing homes are no longer the standard for elderly care within the USA. The new normal is high end facilities that offer a range of benefits to the resident and the ability to socialize with others in the same age range. The facilities give the elderly person the ability to maintain their lifestyle without compromise. They also do not put a significant drain on government funds due to the fact they are primarily privately funded.

Adult Daycare

Some families refuse to put their loved ones in retirement or nursing homes and would rather take care of them themselves, but this can come with some challenges. Many elderly people do not have the ability to take care of themselves and cannot be left alone for a significant amount of time. It makes it very difficult for the caregiver to maintain their employment. Adult daycares are now making it easier for caregivers to keep their job while providing care for their loved ones. Again, these are generally privately funded programs that do not drain government assets.

The state of the social care for the elderly in the USA is not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Programs are coming to light every day to ease the burden and elderly people are now more in control of their own lives than ever before. Social care is and will always be there for our elderly.

If you have a website, whether you are a small business or an individual, and you wish to have more traffic to your site, you must understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO as it is commonly referred). And while there are those which would make you believe that SEO is coding, text, and a bunch of very technical stuff, the truth is that it is not incredibly difficult to understand. True, there are some advanced techniques which would be left to the professionals, such as analytic analysis, website design, and key word density research, but for the most part you can start getting your site SEO equipped if you know the basics.

Why should you know SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the only real way in which a website and a search engine communicate. Search engines look for various content on websites and then they compile a list of those sites which best meet that which is being searched for. These show up on what is known as the SERP or Search Engine Results Page. This is the page that you see when you type any word into Google, Bing, Yahoo, or MSN search. Now, most of us understand that to have more visitors, you need to be at the top of the first page. This is a bit idealistic, as you are competing with over a billion sites. However, if you can get on the first page, then your chances are greatly increased. Think about it. Do you ever really look at page 5 or 10 or your search results? Probably not.

SEO is the only way to get better SERPS.

What is the first step in SEO?

The first step in getting your site ready for SERPs through Affordable SEO is to have great content on your site. It may sound a bit rhetorical, but having text which is full of grammatical errors, misspelled words, and stuffed with unnatural wording will not bring you many visitors. There is a misconception that if someone saturates their site with a keyword, that it will make it easier for the SERPs to find the site. While this is somewhat true, it is also dangerous. As the analytics which search for content also look for sites which are spammy, a site which has too many keywords may be viewed as malicious or as spam.

When creating your keywords use long strings and vary the content. The more natural your page reads, the more apt you are to have viewers read the content and share snippets of the content. And as your SEO is greatly dependent upon building up the views and shares, having readable material is the first step.

Go Organic

By this I do not mean that you need to start buying green technology and eating foods which have no pesticides (though it would not hurt), but rather that you make a means to create content through others. When others view your site and leave comments, or share the content, this is known as organic. Organic content is great for SEO as it shows that others are interested in what you have to say, sell, or offer. Primarily, your sites organic content is built with a collaboration between the media and images on your site and social media.

More than just words

Beyond the words and the organic content are the videos, images, and multimedia engrafted into the site. A website which is properly SEOed will have tags and alt-text added to this content. This is where it is useful to have a professional. If your site has a great deal of visual content (and most sites are starting to go that way) then you will need to have the appropriate tags on your images, videos, and such to make them searchable. Keep in mind that the goal is to make the content of your site able to be found on search engines.

The Cycle of SEO

When you perform SEO on your site, you will not see the results immediately. The reason for this is due to the way in which search engines process their algorithms. Generally, you will see some results in a few days to a week. However, it really takes about a month to get all of the SERPs for all of the pages solidified. That is the good news. The bad news is that SEO is an ongoing process, not a one time thing. You might be at the top of the SERPs one month, but if there is not new organic content, or if your site sits dormant, it could quickly drop to page 4 or 5 of the search engine result pages. If you do not have the time or commitment to keep up the SEO of the site, it is recommended that you use a professional service.

While some people in the world have dreams of becoming rich and famous, others understand the implications and positive effects that can be had through working to improve the lives of individuals. People will always need help and if you have a passion for helping people with a variety of different issues, social work may be your calling. Becoming a social worker in the USA is not something that can be accomplished overnight, but if you work hard and strive toward that passion, it can be achieved. You will be positively impacting lives before you know it.

School Involved

Like most careers, you do not simply decide one day that you want to be a social worker and get a job. You to gain the knowledge of how to effectively do your job. The education to pursue is an undergraduate degree in one of these fields, Introduction to Social Welfare and Human Services, Principles and Practice of Social Work, Human Behavior Theory, Issues in Social Welfare, Social Work Practice in Research, or Statistics for Social Work Research. You can get by within the social worker realm with an undergraduate degree of approximately four years, but if you are serious about your vision of helping people and in order to climb the ladder of success, you may have to get a master’s degree.

Even if your perspective job does not require a master’s degree, it does not hurt to pursue such a degree so that you are much more flexible in your ability to maintain the career. It is much easier to get a job within an agency if you are overqualified rather than under-qualified for the position. Some of the programs that a master’s degree encompasses is Child Abuse and Neglect, Social Work with Children and Adolescents, and Practice in Home and Community Settings with Adults. If you find that you would rather teach within the social worker field, you will have to pursue a doctor’s degree as most colleges require their teachers to have them.

Again, becoming a social worker in the USA is not as easy as simply asking for the job. Apart from your educational credentials, you also have to have the proper license. Gaining access to the license will require you to do a bit of digging to determine your individual state’s requirement. There are no national requirements for all states as each state dictate their own rules and regulations. The requirements can be anywhere from simply paying for the license upon completion of the program and maintaining that license on an annual basis all the way to a high number of hours worked within the field before the license is even available to you. It is important to understand and abide by the stipulations of your individual state.

Qualities of a Good Social Worker

The choice to become a social worker in the USA is one that should not be taken lightly. When you choose such a career, you have to understand that you will not just be maintaining a 9 to 5 job most of the time. Social work requires a commitment to the individuals you are helping and a deep understanding of the laws and regulations surrounding those people. You will often have to work with a wide range of ages and even mental capacities. Before you decide on this degree, make sure that you have thought things through and maintain these important qualities.

Self Control – A social worker has to have the ability to maintain self-control at all times. Social workers often have to be the mediator between families and individuals and those encounters can sometimes become highly volatile. When the social worker is able to maintain their control, they are better equipped to handle any situation that arises without issue.

Oral and Written Skills – When you are a social worker there will be times when your work requires that you sit behind a desk and fill out forms for cases. That means that you must maintain a high level of written skills as well as the most up to date knowledge of the computer programs. The other aspect of your job will require that you have good communication skills to help your clients.

Patience – Having patience will help you become a better social worker. The work requires that you do not take sides within matters, but work to resolve to what is best for the client at hand. These instances will take a lot of patience and caring for the people involved.

A social worker’s life is not for everyone, but for those that have a passion for helping others facing some of the most difficult times of their lives, the rewards can be quite high. If you are looking to becoming a social worker in the USA take these steps to achieve your goals.

When I think of the word disabled, I do not associate it as being “disability” but rather as being a disabled veteran. And while social care for disabled persons in the USA does fall under the category of disability funding and services, due to the number of veterans, a focus should be given to the allocation of funds to this particular group.

The numbers are shocking

In a report from the Disabled American Veteran, there are more than 1.4 million disabled vets in America currently. This is just from the one organization. Other organizations have hundreds of thousands of members, leading the overall count to be in the millions. As these numbers are so high, it is imperative that the social care for disabled persons in the USA be sufficient to take care of the veterans.

The 2017 budget

The va.gov stated that the 2017 budget for Vas is $78.7 billion dollars. This covers medical as well as treatment and prevention programs. It is important to note that the funding will also be spread over 15 million medical procedures for veterans by non-VA providers. The funding also encompasses burial for veterans and family members. The point is that while the numbers may appear on the surface to be substantial, when you stretch out the allotted amount to the various areas in which it will be spent, one will find that the disabled veterans to not get, as a whole, much at all. Is this a defect of the administration, a misunderstanding of the needs, or could it be that the disability and SSI funding for the general populace has put a strain on the funds which can be allocated to veterans? I would venture to say it is the later.

According to the CDC, one in five persons have a disability. And while not every person claims a disability check from the disability, the fact that so many people are considered disabled should be a bit unsettling. If you were to average out the funding which is spent every month (over 76 million) by the number of persons considered disabled (323.5 million total population/5) you would come to 6,490,000. Just simple math will show that the number of people considered disabled does not constitute 76 million in spending. Statistically, the average person receives 1.2 thousand dollars a month. This is more than some fully capable individuals take home a month from working a full time minimum wage job (after taxes, social security, and such). Granted, there are those which are more disabled than others and as such allocation of funds should be given accordingly, but those which claim disability for superfluous conditions should not be given the ability to live without working. Those which have definitive and life disabling illnesses and disability have been given assistance, then a great portion of the funding needs to be reassigned to the disabled veteran. One has only to look at the various organizations and their plea for help to see that the disability funding is lacking the proper funding.

Will privatization of health care options help disability?

We have heard that healthcare privatization will increase the competitive nature of medical treatment. But would such be beneficial to those with disabilities? It would not seem probable that such would be. First, the disabled individual is already at a disadvantage as he or she must depend upon government assistance to support and to treat them for their disability. This means that any competition and adjustment of rates would not be for those under disability but rather for those who can afford to pay for treatment. Secondly, as companies find that they can get higher compensation from paying individuals rather than from government funded disability, it is likely that funding and services for disability will diminish in quality and in quantity. So while the privatization of health care may be beneficial for the average joe, those which cannot make a living are more prone to see issues from privatization than to see benefits.

Veteran disability, and disability in general needs to be restructured so that those who need the benefits get the benefits, and those which have the ability to work are forced to do so. It is not inhumane to make a person on disability seek out employment, even if it is in a line of work that they are unaccustomed to. What is inhumane and is a dis-service to the USA is when men and women who have complete a tour, a second tour, or a third tour in the military to not have the means of assistance should they become disabled due to others which have taken advantage of the system.

When it comes to social care in the USA, it seems that there is always a focus on three main components. These are Entitlements, Medicaid, and regulations. While there may be, some attention given to Social Securities, this generally falls into the entitlement category. And while congress men and women and analysists may try to figure out a way to balance social care budgets and social services, the bottom line is that there are certain issues which should be addressed if the budget is ever to be fixed. Here are a few.

The depletion of funding to non-responsible families

Welfare payments, according to an article in Forbes, has put the receivers within the top 20% of all income earners. Granted, it is far lower than the average US worker’s annual revenue, but the fact remains that the $168 or $25 (depending upon whose side you take in the argument) accounts for a great deal of money collectively. And while I have no qualms with the needy family who uses programs to get a hand-up, I have a big problem with those which seek a hand-out.

Currently, the welfare system is written to where a mother with 6 kids currently, and not pregnant, can go on having children and receiving increased benefits. While some may say that it is the woman’s right to procreate as much as she wills, I would venture to say that should a family have existing children which they cannot support, it should not be upon the social care funding to provide additional assistance should that family decide to expand further. So a simple solution to that budget issue would be this. If you have welfare for a family of 8 and you go about having children, you still only get benefits for the family of 8. Dominic Bowkett

While there has been a bit of restructuring to the SSI and disability funds in the US, the system remains grossly broken. According to the Social Security February 2017 report, the total monthly benefits in millions is 76,412 with the average monthly benefits equaling $1,249.55. Yes, there should be benefits allotted to the elderly and to veterans who cannot work. Yet, the scope of the definition of being disabled has been expounded to such great lengths, that the average bodied worker can claim such for one broken finger. It is true that a broken finger can cause discomfort, and that such takes time to heal. However, even with an amputated finger, a person is able to work (as there are 9 other digits). I am reminded of what Bill O’Reilly Stated when talking about work and addressing those who do not “It’s hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell ‘em they’re irresponsible and lazy. And who’s gonna wanna do that? Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. Period.”

The problem, as with welfare, is that the system allows for too much to be given to too many. The budget issue is that there is 76 million dollars allotted to SSI persons per month. Coupled with the nearly 15 thousand that a single person can make a year, it is no wonder that there has been an increase in those trying to receive it. The solution? Screen applicants more strenuously. Only those which have physical and serious mental illnesses which would hinder work should get the benefits. The budget should allow less to be allotted per month to encourage the average man to work for his supper rather than have it catered to him. Dominic Bowkett

No ceiling means no responsibility

Perhaps the biggest issue with Social Care and the budget in the US is that there does not seem to be a ceiling on the funding. Every time there has arose an issue with the budget, specifically when the government’s total budget has threatened to shut down our government, instead of working out a solution which would help everyone out fiscally, the ceiling of our debt is increased. This is not a solution but feeding a beast which will continue to get bigger. If the allocation of funds continues to rise, but the vault which contains such funds continues to be depleted, those who are receiving social care funding will find that an unexpected and immediate grinding halt will occur in the future. Much like a person cannot expect to get a credit card and spend funds without maxing out their limits, so should be the mentality of the social care budget.

The Solution to Social Care Budgeting in the US

The bottom line is that governmental parties need to be more responsible with the funds that they issue to persons. Those who receive funds who have shown that they are not responsible enough to live with assistance should not get it. Period. Those which can work should be required to do so, and when there is no more money to give out, stop. Only then will the budget get balanced and we may see an increase instead of a depletion of funds in the social care sector. Dominic Bowkett

The Top Freelance Markets in The UK

If you are wishing to freelance in the UK but have no idea where to start, it can be a bit daunting. There are several sites which are available for freelancers (both globally and locally) and within each of these sites you have a series of skillets and labels to define you as a freelancer. The trick is not to try to find one particular skill but rather to understand the market and to offer your services in areas where you are skilled. Diversification is critical when freelancing. Here are a few of the markets which are in demand.

What you will need to get started?

Before you start any freelancing, Dominic Bowkett says, you should ensure that you have the skills needed to perform the job. Compensation for freelancing is typically based upon the level of your expertise. As freelancing tends to be more of a global competitive market, having a formal degree, the software or tools to provide the service, as well as a strong portfolio demonstrating your skills is preferred. A website is mandatory for Freelancing.

Design

Design can encompass print design, architectural design, logos, and such. Generally, Dominic Bowkett explains, when you say that you are a graphic designer, the client assumes that you have a firm grasp of the industry standard software and that you can work with printers and online distributors to meet the requirements for print/online publication. Freelancers in the UK who state that they are Graphic designer must know Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. However, it is not enough to known the programs, you must know the fundamentals of design as well such as form, positive and negative space, typographic design, icon creation strategies, and color theory.

IT

Online IT support is in high demand at the moment. Those wishing to freelance in this sector need to have a very fast internet connection and know exactly what they are talking about. As most of your clients will contact you when they already have a problem, you will need to have excellent communication skills as well as have the ability to talk to disgruntle people. In most situations, businesses will seek IT Freelancers in the UK who have a degree and experience in the field. If you are a novice to providing internet technology services, it is advised that you try to find a startup company or internship to establish yourself.

Businesses within the UK are discovering that mobile applications are the means in which to drive clients to their site and make purchases. As such, the demand for app designers has increased substantially in the past year. Freelancers who offer such services are expected to understand IOS as well as Android standards. Unity, Flash, Java, CSS, and HTML are also benefits which will help you get the edge over the competition. Game designers need to have the above skillset as well as have a strong grasp of Unreal, 3Ds max, Cinema 4D, and the Adobe Suite said Dom Bowkett.

Web Design

UI and UX are fundamental traits which a freelancer in the UK should have. Web Design is different from design in that you will be expected to understand both the principles of design as well as the technology demands of code and SEO. Clients will expect you to understand SERPs, HTML standards, interactive elements, organic building, blog incorporation, and supporting elements. It is not enough that a freelancer understand WordPress to be a Web Designer. The UK Freelancer must also understand how to convert the desktop page to mobile media and smartphones in order to meet the algorithm demands in today’s market.

Personal Assistants/ Virtual Assistant

Freelancers in this category should be extremely cautious when taking on new clients. Personal assistance should perform due diligence to ensure that the phone conversations, telemarketing, collections, and emails you send are legally founded. There are a great many con artist who use the term virtual assistant to have a scapegoat for a marketing or fraud scheme. If providing a personal assistant or virtual assistant service, it is strongly advised that you try to meet the contractor face to face and get the proper legal documents prior to starting.

Legal

Legal freelancing, in my opinion, should be avoided at all cost. The ramifications for misrepresentation (even if you are a licensed lawyer) are too great. Just because you can practice law in the UK does not mean that your client is from where you are licensed. Additionally, if you are a lawyer, the odds are in your favor that you can find a firm to partner with, providing you with a more substantial means of revenue then fighting for contracts online. Should you wish to have a freelancing law firm in the UK, check with the local counsel for standards and regulations. Contact Dominic Bowkett Social Worker for more information.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI as it is commonly referred to, seems to have embedded itself into most aspects of life. Technology and the dependence upon smart technology has yielded advancement which have sparked new innovations and creativity within the music industry writes Dominic Bowkett. As a result of these innovations and these advancements, Artificial Intelligence has become more pronounced in music production. But is this a good or a bad thing? Does integrating AI into music production give the same results as one would expect from a human composer? The answer is yes and no.

Artificial Intelligence can be used for looping

When it comes to creating loops and dance “trend” music, there is little that needs to be considered apart from a consistent beat and a good bass to keep the dancers motivated. Artificial Intelligence, in its loosest interpretation of the word, has been used to create such dance tracks. The creator simply sets the parameters for the program, specifies the duration of the track, and perhaps adds in an algorithm relating to the variation of the instruments and duration of the track, and the computer program makes it. Additionally, those who make advanced tracks could build upon the AI formed track to quickly compose some very elaborate selections with minimal effort says Dominic Bowkett.

The advantage of using such a system is that several unique sound tracks can be created without the need to surf your library for unused loops and beats. Theoretically, the artificial intelligence also allows for a song to be under construction while another is playing. This optimizes the process and the flow substantially. The downside to this is that the DJ becomes irrelevant. If the “artist” is a computer, then the DJ is not needed to orchestrate the tracks which are being danced to. Thus, ending the careers of several individuals.

The Soundtrack Industry is not likely to see too much A.I.

While it may be true that action movies may use the artificial intelligence to create those techno and grunge beats that we are so fond of in movies like The Matrix, Mad Max, and Swordfish, there is a bit more artistry, I believe, in the blockbuster soundtracks than can be produced by artificial intelligence. Granted, the A.I. will probably get to that point, but as it stands right now, I do not believe that Hans Zimmer has anything to worry about. Why?

The fundamental reason that artificial intelligence in music production has not seeped into too much cinematic production is due to the fact that the soundtracks created for the theater are to evoke emotion. And while there is a plethora of material within the computer based systems of the artificial intelligence, there has yet to be genuine emotion within the computer. Such would be a scary concept really (just look at ex-machina). Because there is a void of emotion and because the composer understands human emotion, it is fairly safe to say that artificial intelligence will not be a dominant part of the movie music production.

Socializing the music industry

One avenue which artificial intelligence in music production will spark is the quick creation of soundtracks to accompany social media videos writes Dominic Bowkett. Think about this. If you have something along the lines of a GoPro or a Kodak Pixpro that you wish to upload to a social media site, the ability to really ramp it up with an artificially created track would be beneficial. It would not surprise me in the least to see an artificial intelligence algorithm incorporated into Facebook, YouTube, or Google+ to create soundtracks based upon your viewing history, posts, and musical likes.

iTunes will most certainly have such tracks become available based upon your download and viewing history. The apple based store already has several artists which offer artificial intelligence based music. All you must do is make a search of artificial intelligence in music on Apple to get a ton of results.

What does this mean for music production?

Like many things which become computerized, the integration of artificial intelligence in music production will cause the market to drop. DJs and lower end professionals will find it more difficult to sell their tracks, especially if they resemble anything made by artificial intelligence. Purists will need to have a unique methodology for creating and distributing music which will set them apart in the industry. As the market of musical producers is sure to narrow, those which have specialized skills, such as those in cinematic music production are apt to see an increase in their pay and in the demand for their services.

While Artificial intelligence may have a role in some aspects of the music industry which would and have proven to be beneficial, I do not believe that we should be so quick to shed our creativity and arts in the sake of expenditure and technology. For more information Visit his Site.

When you think about art, especially fine art, the words artificial intelligence and design generally are not the first things which come to mind. Yet, artificial intelligence has come to the art world. The merger of computer based productions with galleries was largely introduced by google in 2016 at a show by Dominic Bowkett. According to the exhibitor, the intelligence which was portrayed showed not only an advancement in the realm of art and design, but also a looking into the dream state of a computer. And while this is an interesting development in technology, one must wonder if artificial intelligence in art and design is really art or a glorified means of mass production.

What is art?

To determine whether artificial intelligence in art and design is art or mass production methods, you must have a way in which to define art. This is subjective. Some would state that the works by artist Jackson Pollok are not art and others would state that his creations are. More controversially, some would claim that the photography of artists such as Dominic Bowkett are not art but an exploitation of the concept of it. For this article, let us define art as that which is visual and inspires emotion from the contents of a visual piece. With this very loose basepoint, both artist above would be classified as art. But does this definition mean that artificial intelligence should be classified as such as well?

While we have mastered a great deal of technology advancements, we have yet to fully copy the scope of human emotion within a computer. Movies such as exmachina, Ghost in the Shell, and who can forget iRobot have all had a measure of mimicking emotion. Yet, in the real world the closest which we have come to a humanoid artificial intelligence with emotion is Geminoid. But even with the close resemblance to humans, Dominic Bowkett says there is still a very present robotics to the design. Other robots have been programmed to have certain emotional responses based upon voice commands and stimulation, but here again the artificial intelligence has not been able to create emotion much less artwork. If we take away the robot and make the artificial intelligence computer based only, then you really eliminate the ability to show emotion to a string of code. Code which is then duplicated varied and outputted into a visual form. Is this art? Again, you fall into a subjective reasoning and interpretation which has no definitive answer unless based upon the factor of emotion.

Emotion cannot be truly replicated by something which can show no emotion. That which is not present cannot be known. Any emotional response which is given to artificial intelligence in art and design is from the viewer’s perspective only and not the intelligence. It made the art because a program told it to do so. There was no thought process which stated “how would the world look to a caterpillar?” or “what does love look like?”. I believe that this is the definitive separator and determine factor that artificial intelligence cannot be true art.

If not art, then where does artificial intelligence in art and design fall?

Artificial intelligence in art and design works much along the same lines as a person who has an original piece of artwork and then provides many prints to the public. Yes, there is a resemblance to the original, and yes there may be some emotion which sparks out of the print, but for the most part there is something which is lost in the translation from the original to the production art. Such is the case with the artificial intelligence. While there may be aspects and features which skirt around the fringes of the world of art, there is something which is amiss. It is that strange sensation that you cannot quite put your finger on, that disturbing tingling in your mind knowing that what you are looking upon was not created by human hands, and that disassociation with human emotion that is striving to invoke an emotional response which goes against the grain.

The only place for artificial intelligence to fall within the world of art and design is as a production tool. It is not art and should not be treated as such. Purists will more than likely refrain from using it. Digital artists may use artificial intelligence to regurgitate similar prints to an original piece (a quick way to stuff the portfolio). As a whole, I do not believe that the mainstream art world will embrace the technology. Artist are a different breed of creativity. They believe not only in the art, but the journey in which it took to get to the final result. If you take the journey out of the process then for many you have taken the essence of art from the piece. For more information contact Dominic Bowkett.

Any website owner who has done any research in increasing their presence on the web understands that content is the key. You have to have SEO if you wish to increase your SERPs (search engine result pages). One of the easiest methods to increase your SEO is to have articles, blogs, and organic content rich with keywords and engaging material. But who really has the time to write articles every day/week? Those which have small businesses or those which have full time jobs alongside their website may find that allotting time to article writing is not an option. Because of the rise of individuals seeking SEO content and due to the sheer number of websites (around 1.1 Billion according to Dominic Bowkett) artificial intelligence in article writing has boomed. What does this mean for the future of writing and the internet?

With a boom in artificial intelligence will come stricter algorithms

Dom Bowkett says, While there are already means in which Google and the other main search engines regulate their SERPs and determine quality SEO for the SERPs, it can be expected that measures will be put into place to validate the originality of articles created for blog purposes. Much like the CAPTCHAs which is attached to forms, it would not surprise me at all if WordPress, Blogger, and other article based sites start requiring such validation to keep the number of artificial intelligence articles at bay. Currently, no such methods are in place for restricting using artificial intelligence in writing your blogs or articles. As a result, a person could use several different sites to create several different articles a day. With all the keywords and content, it would be possible for that person to see a quick rise in the SERPs, but there is a danger in this abundance.

One of the major drawbacks to having artificial intelligence article writing is in the output of the article says Dominic Bowkett. Artificial Intelligence article writing is based upon you inputting certain key words which you wish to have in the articles. Some bots allow you to input basic information about your business and select whether or not you wish to have photos in your album. It sounds good, but this does not mean that it is good for your site. The major issues which arise from using artificial intelligence in blog or articles are:

Keyword density may be too saturated spawning the search engines red flag algorithm to mark your site as spam or as malicious.

The flow of the article may not be consistent with actual human speech patterns and grammar, making it hard to read.

While the artificial intelligence claims that your article is unique, there is no guarantee that it will pass copyscape or the duplication screening process. The keyword phrases may cause these programs to mark it as unoriginal content.

The article may contain images, but those images may not be tagged and have alternative text added to them. This would result in poor SEO.

The articles may not have appropriate headers or headers which make sense.

These are just a few examples of the problems which occur when you let artificial intelligence maintain the SEO content of your page. It is always better to have at least a few humans on your staff to maintain the quality of the articles which you are presenting to the public.

Artificial Intelligence article writing and the future

Sadly, I do not see artificial intelligence going anywhere when it comes to writing. Most of us have a form of such intelligence in our computer. Even if you rely upon the intelligence of spell check and grammar check, you are invoking a level of artificial intelligence. Where the problem lays in not so much in using the tools to help you create quality content, but rather in the reliance upon such tools to do the job for us. My fear is that the boom in artificial intelligence in writing will spark a new level of laziness in a world already dependent upon technology. Compare the dependence upon calculators for math and the general populace’s ability to conduct even the simplest of equations. Now, transfer that same level of dependence to the artificial intelligence. Perhaps the age of communication is dying and we are going to a text message and instantaneous messaging world. I for one think that before we jump on this bandwagon we should question what is at stake.

Yes, use the artificial intelligence for a tool. Have the fail safe methods in place to increase your writing ability, but do not turn over writing and creativity to an automated process. Think. Formulate. Write. Inspire. These are the measures of a great article, regardless of whether it is written by a person or a machine. More information, just contact Dominic Bowkett.